Last Thursday on Alberta

Rose City Vaudeville

Artists, musicians and performers line the street from 15th through 30th Avenues, galleries hold their monthly openings and restaurants and bars hang new artwork for sale. Last Thursday is the largest art event in Portland as well as the most entertaining place to buy local art.

Last Thursday, the monthly Alberta Arts District festival, is now in its 18th season.

Last Thursday happens year round but during the peak summer months the street is closed from 6:00-9:30 to all vehicle traffic (May-September). ALERT: Mayor Hales is only supporting street closures for June, July and August.

Last Thursday is a community grown event, free to all artists and art vendors, musicians, performers & visitors that continues into the future despite the Mayor’s attempts to squeeze the event into a homogenized package.

If you would like to display your work on Last Thursday, grab your handmade wares, a table and head on out to Last Thursday on Alberta. Please make sure to read the how-to set up portion on the artist or non-art vendor pages.

Currently, Mayor Hales is attempting to impose registration ignoring our heritage of 17 years. Hales has decided to not impose fees for 2015 vendors. Yes, it’s still free.

Last Thursday is for creatives, artists, musicians and performers.

Last Thursday is not for re-sales, imported goods, corporate promotions or retail.

Parking can get difficult so please ride your bike or use public transportation to cut down on the congestion and we’ll see you out there!

Friends of Last Thursday is no more.

The spirit remains but the name has reverted back to the Mayor’s Office. FoLT has disbanded with the knowledge that we do so with never backing down to the Mayor’s uninformed demands.

Thank you to the vendors, supportive businesses and community members and all the City agencies we have worked with for the past four years.

We direct you to the mayor’s office as our community is no longer ‘authorized’ to manage this event and they refuse to support any local groups to handle the event.

For livability/community impact concerns and questions we refer you to Chad Stover: chad.stover@portlandoregon.gov 503-823-4120

UPDATE: LAST THURSDAY

Yes, Last Thursday continues to be.

But, fees, registration and placement become barriers. They do not invite the public to freely participate. It denies the child, restricts creative movement for happenings and bars those that cannot afford. It eliminates spontaneity and stifles interactions.

LT is, and has been, the only free stage for artists for 17 years. This free platform has fostered the most creative, unusual, exciting and unsterilized event in Portland, landing it into travel guidebooks, international magazine articles and exploding in popularity bringing over 80,000 people to the Alberta District during it’s 5 monthly evenings.

Now, understanding it’s popularity and what a special gem this event could be (although currently a tad bit rough on the edges) is the true trick. Why is this mayor denying giving the event ‘special designation’ for street vending such as permitted for the Rose Festival? Why is he not supporting the Alberta community to sustainably be the rightful hosts and owners of LT? Why not provide financial support rather than declaring governance? The former community group of volunteers asked for financial assistance with the festival that had been allowed to reach such a peak without ever needing to become a ‘legitimate’ permitted event. They were stuck holding a very large bag that had never needed to follow the rules. The offer was for a non-profit to run the event with their help of $5000 per event that would have been enough support to bring about an arts focused, cultural tourism diamond.

Alberta is a true model of a downtrodden neighborhood’s success in bringing people and commerce to the street. That attempt soon became the economic engine for businesses before becoming the iconic urban festival of Portland. What a story of grassroots urban process and change. Your support of this neighborhood in preserving the true nature of LT would have been a nice feather to put into your hat Hales but, at the very least they deserve a more respectful political association.

Count the number or restaurants and bars on Alberta and note that it was LT that brought a lot of business to their doors. Bartenders could reportedly make rent at at least three of the summer’s LTs. This trend has had a boomerang effect leaving Alberta Street with over 50 liquor licenses in a 20 block strip. This of course, has added to the alcohol related problems. Although when you look at the statistics and ratios it hasn’t been bad in the face of abundance. This ratio is a question for the OLCC and how it does it’s business but instead has prompted Hales to create the Late Night Tax.

LT is a public gathering. Business owners started LT as an attempt to take back the street and invited the public to share it with them and this has continued for seventeen years. Last Thursday produced a public space that has crossed cultural boundaries, backgrounds, values and associations. From their struggles came Alberta’s artistic cultural identity. They used their creative resources to build community and it is inclusive. This is something honorable, inspiring and truly grassroots in a neighborhood that has had to do it themselves having survived discrimination by zoning and accustomed to being forgotten, separated and disinvested. It is a marginalized community using urban space to redefine their economic and cultural well-being.

No. Now is the time to listen to the “200 phone calls” made in the past 2 years that have now made your policy to take the event and govern it into the ground, making it manageable enough to place under your thumb. The lies have been spun and there is no eating crow. I just want to remind our readers why Friends of Last Thursday stepped down last year; they refused to comply to closing the street only to 27th, excluding four Alberta galleries. Nor were they prepared to pay for the newly required count of 80 toilets, a 200% increase of costs placed on the organization a week before the event. They were open to the 3rd requirement, to end the event at 9:30 but would not “be a party to reopening the streets with street cleaners carrying pressurized water hoses”. I have seen photos of the amount of city vehicles used that evening to clear the streets. It was obviously due to your fear of a riot, again proving your misguided understanding and heavy hand of this whole affair.

Were those added requirements in parallel with other street fairs?

Insurgent Citizenship. We are citizens and citizens serve constitutive role in shaping the political and physical spaces in our city. It is our counter identity in this urban landscape and we claim it as ours. Other examples of insurgent citizenship that worked to create new ideas in policy is the Dias De los Muertos festivals in Southern California or the Puerto Rican Day parade in New York City.

Last Thursday demands a novel approach in order for the Alberta District to keep their cultural identity. The challenge is put forth for you to mediate between those with and without power with a broader perspective for both citizens and the city. This will take initiative by both the community, it’s artists and government leaders. It is placemaking at it’s finest. Nourishing creative culture is the answer.

Get the Hales out of our neighborhood!

Arts and culture are vital to community life. We also believe that community is vital to arts and culture. We’ve seen that the organizations who thrive are the ones who understand and connect with their communities. -National Arts Strategies

All the info you need is on the website: LastThursdayonAlberta.com
Are your necklaces, keychains, etc. handmade? Then look under artist vendors, if not look under non-art vendor.
Please ask if you have further questions.

I’ve heard tell….that this year 2014 Last Thursdays is officially “cancelled” and anyone setting up on Alberta on the coming monthly LTs
ie: May-Sep. will recieve fines and or “removed” from the street!…is there any truth to this? and if so, how can we tax paying citizens that rely heavily on Last Thursdays for a major part of their income continue to participate?

No way.
Although Friends of Last Thursday is no more, Last Thursday lives on. The Mayor’s Office has ‘informed’ us that they will be sending out a press release stating that they will be providing the services for LT this summer. They will be paying for the trash/toilets/security etc. but we have yet to see any management or any action towards community impact. (Which is the reason they site for taking it from the community volunteer group, FoLT.)
They have taken the management away from our neighborhood but the people own the event, which has become the 2nd largest event behind the Rose Fest, and it will continue for it’s 17th year.
Questions or concerns? Contact Chad Stover, Mayor’s Office: chad.stover@portlandoregon.gov 503-823-4120
Let him know you want LT to stay in the hands of this hosting neighborhood’s hands.

Hi, I’m vising Portland and am very excited for this event! I just wanted to let you know that for someone new to Portland and new to this website, it’s a little unclear that FOLT is separate from Last Thursdays. When I saw above that FOLT was “no more” I thought that meant the whole event wasn’t happening any longer. It’s clarified in the comments, but it might be good to clarify it above in the text too.

I recently emailed a request for Last Thursday for this month. May 28th. I have yet to get a reply. That being said, after viewing this web page I guess it’s best that I continue to do as I’ve always done, enjoy my paintings at home and remain hopeful that one day something may come of it. I recently was invited to the first annual Multnomah County HIV/AIDS clinic art and craft show last month. There was a great turn out and a new art group was formed for the HIV/AIDS community that is inclusive to all. My artwork was well received and I sold some paintings as well. I unfortunately had to decline participating in that group as well as it comes down the the same old song: Why does someone or some group have to spoil a good thing? Its a shame that Last Thursday and the other art group must suffer such an ordeal. I guess the common good and doing a good thing are tossed to the wayside.
I was working on some new paintings to show at Last Thursday this month, guess I have to make more room on my living room wall. Good luck everyone and God Bless.

My apologies to all. Most of the posts did not download before I posted my previous comment. I look forward to participating as I just recently found out about this event. Still sort of new to Portland via New Orleans. I look forward to meeting you!

All things do change, but I am so very glad to see this event continue. It can be a pain in the A. for those of us that live in the hood but it is a wonderful way for artists of all forms to share wares, skills and interests. My only wish is that people get a bit more involved and keep this unique event in the hands of the people as it was created. See you out there!

Nobody in the neighborhood enjoys last Thursday. My front yard becomes a toilet – literally – for the type of person who shows up. Something needs to change because the caliber of attendant and blatant disregard for the people who live here is appalling. I have enjoyed 13 years in Portland and tonight was again an affirmation that there is no value this event brings to the Alberta community. It is a reason for people to trash our community in every sense of the word.

Our community no longer is authorized by Charley Hales to run Last Thursday. It is now being handled by his project manager, Chad Stover, the self proclaimed Port-o-Potty King. It was his plan to provide more toilets than we provided the past 3 years but I guess that didn’t work. Please send all comment to him: Chad Stover, Mayor’s Office: chad.stover@portlandoregon.gov 503-823-4120
p.s. There are many people in our neighborhood that love LT! It needs direction and from our community not the misguided mayor.

It’s not about the toilets, it’s about what Last Thursday has become – an excuse for teens and twenty somethings to get sh*tfaced. Just last night – trash in the garden, car blocking my driveway for over two hours, two separate cars that parked, let out a load of pot smoke, and then rolled on.

Make it about ART (like the yearly weekend street fair) and you’ll get support from the neighborhood. Until then, I’m fully fed up, as an Alberta resident for 10+ years will fight to get this shut down.

You do understand that the Mayor has taken the event from the community’s hands and has governed the event since June 2013 without public or City Council input. We too have seen the event quickly go downhill in the time they have been ‘managing’ the event. Please call Chad and tell him it’s getting bad.

You show up. That’s Last Thursday which has been free for all creatives, artists, musicians and buskers. No registration either. Well, until Mayor Charlie Hales tries to ruin this 17 year old event. But for now, no registration and no fee.

Hi!
I would like to attend Last Thursday on June 26, just found the info on a Meet-Up site last night. Is there a vendor fee and what time can vendors set up? I have my own 9×9 tent and two tables. I sell my own handmade jewelry: necklaces, earrings and bracelets.

Me and a few friends are coming down tomorrow with our seperate crafts, and, though I am aware the street is closed was unclear of the parking rules. Do here’s the dealio: we have a van with a fold-out canopy and were hoping we could park it there and set up that way. Please get back to me on this! Thank you

I GREW UP IN THE SABIN AREA & THAT’S SEVERAL BLOCKS BEFOR PRESCOTT STREET AND NOW I LIVE IN THE GRANT AREA BUT I WILL VISIT THE LAST THURSDAY FESTIVAL THIS EVENING BUT IT’S SAD THAT IT’S GETTING SO POLITICAL THAT THE NEIGHBORS ARE COMPLAINING THAT THE MUSIC AT THE FESTIVAL IS WAY TO LOUD & THE POLICE WILL BE HANDING OUT TICKETS FOR LOUD MUSIC IT’S A ONCE A MONTH EVENT WHERE EVERYONE COMES OUT & HAVE A GREAT TIME TALKING/MEETING FRIENDS/EATING AT RESTAURANTS/BUYING MERCHANDISE/LISTENING TO GOOD MUSIC NOT WHERE YOU’RE HANDED A TICKET AT A FESTIVAL FOR PLAYING YOUR MUSIC TOO LOUD BUT I’M LOOKING TO HAVING A GREAT TIME THIS EVENING AND THIS IS JUST MY OPINION ONLY!!!

I have to be perfectly honest with you, and disagree. There are dozens of street fairs that happen all over this city and all of them except Last Thursday go through the proper channels of developing a management body through a non-profit, they work with business associations and neighbors in order to develop the right funding mechanism and logistical support to run the event. Portland taxpayers have been handling the bill at Last Thursday for 17 years. If you know someone who has the right financial support and means to manage this, we would love nothing more than to hand it off. But when 20,000 people congregate in the street, the City has no choice but to put resources toward managing the event (Police, Fire, ONI, toilets, garbage, recycling, security, etc). All of these things cost money.

If you have ideas for addressing the livability concerns, handling the logistics, covering the costs, downing the noise, enforcing open-container drinking and marijuana use, and all the while keep the nuance of the event to be about the artists (which is what I hear from people most of the time), then I would love to hear your thoughts. We’re trying to keep the event going, but the status quo hasn’t worked for everyone.

So untrue. The City has NOT, I repeat NOT, paid the bill for Last Thursday for 17 years!
No one did, it was just a thing that happened in our downtrodden neighborhood and was ignored by the City for the same fact.
The community couldn’t even get the City to help shut down the street when the size of the crowds became so large they spilled into the streets. We the people, pushed abandoned cars into the street to start blocking it off in 2007. The City stepped in in 2009 and then charged the Alberta District to take over the event and Friends of Last Thursday was born and began to run the event in 2011. FoLT paid for all services and did everything he mentions in that last paragraph.
Actually, FoLT members now have a non-profit and have offered to run the event but they refused That would mean they would have to eat crow. These politicians will do anything to not admit they were wrong. Look how they keep spinning this story!

Hi,
With general food prep and handlers cards aside, are baked goods required to be prepared in a commercial oven? My mom and I are pretty ‘small-time’ right now and would like to share our dairy free cakes with the world and I think LT would be a great way to.
Thank you to anyone with information.

Dear Mr. Stover,
I am writing this in support of the continuation of the Last Thursday on Alberta event. I live in California but I always (every year) vacation in Portland. My vacation centers around events like Last Thursdays. I spend 100% of my vacation dollars in PDX enjoying everything LA does not have. Like friendly respectful people, best and safest city biking in the country, best food on every level, the best coffee and of course great breweries. So why not continue with the best art festival? While I am not up to speed with PDX politics, I’m sure it has a lot to do with money. Money the city would like to collect from artists, who are for the most part, poor. Last Thursday is a demonstration of the city’s tolerance for free thinkers and free expression. Whatever the cost to the taxpayers, the benefits are manyfold in successful businesses along Alberta (whom I’m sure pay taxes as well). Businesses I now frequent because of Last Thursdays. Instead of stifling these types of events, they should be expanded to other neighborhoods. So please, keep Portland weird and wonderful.
Sincerely,
Karl Garabedian
Tujunga, CA

His reply:

Hi Karl,

Thanks for your message. Glad to hear you are in support of Last Thursday. So is the Mayor’s Office. Happy to talk if you would like, but this has little to do with politics, and more to do with equity and basic City law. We are in support of the event and want to see it continue, but it needs proper management and the right kind of funding mechanism. Also, the livability concerns as expressed by neighbors need to be addressed. We believe that good government stands for listening to all sides of the equation and finding the best path forward. I appreciate your speaking up.

Friends have suggested that we put Portland on our “places to go” as we drive from Victoria, BC to the redwoods in California. They marvel at the concept of the “Last Thursday” event as a free event, no fees for vendors as it allows smaller artists to participate. That is what drives the interest, how the city supports and allows this type of wonderful ingenuity…. please don’t change it, keep embracing it…. people travel to Portland for this unique event Jean

Hey, I am interested in August 2014. Any fees yet for this month and is it happening in September as well?

My other suggestion is: even though everyone hates fees, I would not mind handing over a small amount of fee to hold a place as long as the fee go towards maintenance to keep Alberta’s Last Thursday clean and safe.

I also suggest that if the Mayor doesn’t want to really take charge in this, that he should have a small committee formed that will handle all inquiries concerning the residence and those that are selling plus consumers. They will also be in charge of cleaning up once it is over.

I think having these two things will definitely make Last Thursday go well. I will be happy to forward my comments to the email provided as well. But for financial reasons, I need to know what I am putting out for August and if I can for Sept 2014.

Hello, I am an astrologer and would like to give free 20 minute readings to get more exposure, can I be a participant in this event with a table? If yes, is there a better area than not for setting up my table, lastly, is there free hotspot wireless areas as my set up involves the internet for astrology reads. Thanks, Patsy

I am confused … I see a note that Last Thursday runs all year long … but then also a note that says from May to September as the peak time. So does it continue Oct-April (non-peak)? Is it going on next Thursday OCT 30th? and is it still a free event for vendors?

Is Last Thursday happening today or is it really during the warmer months? It does say all year long, but Townshend’s Tea House didn’t think it was happening today. Also, is the mayor taking over the event?

Does anyone know if one could set up their stuff in the morning for more business possibilities? Also, does it make sense that it says no fees up at the top then towards the bottom, it says no fees for non-art/food vendors? Thanks for answering!

Hi!
I’m looking for the vendor with the handmade bamboo yard screens. I can’t find his card and I need to contact him to purchase one of his screens. Last year he was located not far from Bantu Island, on the opposite side of the street, probably around 16th Avenue. Please help! My yard needs him.

Hey! I am looking to be a new vendor this June selling homemade art, I am unclear if I need to register and pay for the months of June, July, and August. I know May was free, and that it has always been an amazing free event ran by the community but that the Mayor is attempting to ruin everything….Thanks!

Art Vendors-DON’T BE A VENDOR! How? Do not put prices on your work. You are protected under Freedom of Speech to share your work in public. People may ask how much for that painting. Your response; people have paid $200 for similar paintings. Money is donated into a jar or basket on your table for you to take later. (No money should change hands.) display and share your work and you are no longer a ‘vendor’ and should no longer ‘have to’ register or pay a fee (legally at least).

Last Thursday happens year round with the street closed off during the busiest summer months. Alberta has been traditionally closed for Sept. but our Mayor Hales is not planning on closing the street this year. You are still welcome to come and set up for LT in Sept. Vending will be on the sidewalks only.